Maybe I’m getting ahead of the game with this salad. We don’t have local cucumbers yet, or ripe tomatoes in the garden, or even peas yet which should be one of the first things, but I was still craving all the things in this salad. It was also kind of a clean-out-the-fridge type salad where the last of the bag of peas and the end of a cucumber went into the bowl and was stirred up with the dressing. In all honesty I didn’t put too much thought into it and so I didn’t expect it to be that great. I was really surprised, all the different textures and consistencies worked really well together and it turned out to be a great lunch. I did use parsley from my garden though, so maybe I’m not too far off season with this recipe.

After making a wheat berry salad the last time I’ve always been thinking of new flavor combinations because I really love the idea. Like I mentioned, this was more of an attempt to clean out my fridge than to make an awesome salad but I do have some more ideas for grainy salads in the future. I’m hoping they’ll be perfect for hot weather 😉

On the recipe I state that this serves two, but it’s a fairly small serving as if you would be eating something else with it but with the salad as the main dish. If this is all you’re having you might be able to eat it all if you’re super hungry although I find wheat berries to be very filling. You can also add a tiny pinch of sugar or a drizzle of honey if your balsamic vinegar isn’t sweet enough, but not too much as you don’t want a sweet salad, just enough to balance the vinegar.

Summer Vegetable Wheat Berry Salad

Serves two

1/2 C cooked and cooled wheat berries

1 C snap peas, cut into bite sized pieces

1 medium roma tomato

a small handful flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 C cucumber cut into bite sized pieces

Dressing:

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

pinch sea salt

Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together. Chop all veggies to small bite sized pieces and place in a bowl with the wheat berries and parsley and then mix in the dressing. Then store in the fridge until ready to eat, or serve right away.